Taking the downtime to do something positive for the 2017 football season, Warren County High School head football coach Tom Moore is having a mandatory meeting for all parents of freshmen and varsity boys who want to play. The meeting will be Thursday, March 2, at 6 p.m. in the high school auditorium.
“February has been an exciting month for the Warren County football program as three Pioneers, K'Rojhn Calbert, Hunter Hawkins, and Mitchell Stembridge, signed football scholarships with The University of Tennessee, Tennessee Tech, and Cumberland University, respectively,” said coach Moore. “This is tremendous for us to have three kids sign. I am thrilled for the great opportunity that K'Rojhn and Hunter have been given. I hope this will serve as motivation for our younger student-athletes to set goals and work to accomplish them. We want to build on that momentum and strive for excellence in the upcoming season.”
The meeting is not just for parents of returning varsity players and parents of new boys who want to come out for the team. It is also for the parents of current eighth-graders who will be freshmen in the fall. Each boy who is planning the play football should bring at least one parent. The meeting will last one hour.
“This will be an informational meeting in which we will give our practice and game schedule for the spring, summer, and fall,” Moore said. “We also need to have a strong commitment from our football parents as well. It is very helpful to have encouragement from home for our players.”
Combining his years of coaching experience with the success current athletes have accomplished, Coach Moore said that when college scouts come by the school, they will ask two questions about the student athlete: (1) how are his grades and ACT score; and (2) what other sports does he play? Most college coaches do not like players who specialize in just one sport.
“We like our kids to participate in multiple sports. It makes them better athletes as the more our kids compete, the better they will be. We do not have enough athletes in the school to be able to specialize,” Moore surmised.
Coach Moore said he is primarily concerned with three groups of boys right now. The first group is the boys who are in the offseason program. They are working very hard to improve their speed, quickness, and strength, he said. Coach Moore has observed that “the attitude in the locker room is different in a positive way. There is more of a unified sense of purpose.”
The second group is the football players who play a winter sport.
“We have a number of boys on varsity, junior varsity and freshman basketball teams. There are some boys with skills who play basketball who are not playing football now and could really help our football program,” Moore said. “I have asked Isaiah Grayson – quarterback of the football team who also plays basketball – to encourage those kids to come out for the team. There are also a number of boys who play baseball and soccer who could help us as well.”
Coach Moore has talked repeatedly about recruiting within the school. “We have to. I think when these guys who are in other sports are able to join our team, they will see we are serious about changing things.”
The third group is the current eighth-grade boys who will become freshmen in the fall. “We had a meeting at the middle school last week and had 52 boys signed up. We will also visit the county schools to encourage any eighth-grader interested in football to join us as soon as school is over in May.”
More than anything else, Coach Moore emphasized the Pioneers will have only one goal and only one standard.
“Our goal is to win football games – period. To win, it’s imperative that we are willing to do what it takes to win. Warren County High School football will have one and only one standard. There is only one way to do things, and that is the right way. People are drawn to great organizations, and I want the football program here in Warren County to be a great organization. I want it to be something our people can be proud of. This is our goal and our standard.”